When I accepted a job offer, it required me to move to the Buffalo area.
I’d never been to New York state before.
I grew up in the deep south and had never even seen actual snow. I was familiar with temperatures in the triple digits and high humidity. Running the air conditioner was just about a year round necessity. I was both a little worried about and excited for the change of scenery and weather. I moved to Buffalo in the early fall, and it was just beautiful. The weather was cool but pleasant, and the colors of the leaves were absolutely gorgeous. At that time of year, there’s a lot to do in the local area. I enjoyed the Oktoberfest downtown, went apple picking and took a quick trip to Niagara Falls. It didn’t take long for the temperature to drop. There was a tremendous amount of rain and everything turned muddy. Just when I thought the weather couldn’t get any worse, the rain turned to snow. The temperature continued to fall and hit negative digits. Within a few hours, there was over a foot of snow on the ground. That’s when I learned about lake effect snow. The lake effect snow is caused by the proximity of the city to Lake Erie. The clouds draw moisture from the unfrozen lake and drop it in the form of snow. While snow is really beautiful, it’s also heavy, wet, cold and a lot of work. Shoveling snow is exhausting and frustrating. I can spend hours clearing the walking way and brushing off my car before I go to bed at night and then wake up in the morning and need to do it again.